A version of the following article appeared in the June 29, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Q&A: Huntington Bank says there’s room to grow in a crowded Charlotte banking market
It’s been a little over a year since Ohio-based Huntington Bank opened its first branch in the Carolinas, in Charlotte’s SouthPark area, part of a march toward 55 branches envisioned for the Carolinas in the next few years.
The bank now has 10 branches in the two states, including a second Charlotte location in South End.
Huntington is one of several banks that have eyed the Charlotte region for expansion, both in the branches that we can all see as we drive around town, but also less visible lines of business that include wealth management and commercial lending. Huntington says it employs several hundred workers in the Charlotte area, which is a regional headquarters. It’s the country’s 18th-largest bank by assets, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
Trent Hollard of Huntington Bank. (Photo courtesy of Huntington Bank)
To check in on the status of Huntington’s expansion, we recently talked with Trent Holland, the bank’s regional president for North and South Carolina. Here is part of the conversation, edited for clarity and space:
Q. Are there any lines of business that are doing exceptionally well?
We're one of the largest SBA [Small Business Administration] lenders in the country, one of the largest equipment finance lenders in the country, and so we had more clients in the Carolinas than we realized when we got here. That gave us momentum in those areas.
Equipment finance has been a real bright spot for us as companies are really active in growing in Charlotte and in the Carolinas. It’s everything you can think of: manufacturing equipment, IT equipment. We do a really broad range, so that's a kind of core competency.
We have a fantastic wealth offering, and that's really taken off. That group is kind of ahead of where we hoped to be.
Retail has gotten off the ground faster than we thought. That's been one of the more rewarding things, to see how quickly we get community engagement and acceptance of the brand and then folks actually choosing to do business. It's really fun to watch these branches ramp up in terms of community partnerships, their deposit base, their loan base.
Q. The Carolinas are attracting a lot of different financial institutions here. A lot of them are growing — JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank and a bunch of others. In that kind of environment, how do you set yourself apart? And do you need to set yourself apart, or is there enough business here for everybody?
I think it is kind of “yes” and “yes.” We do have what we think is a very differentiated model, a lot of local decision-making. We have a really good culture. You can be pretty nimble if you communicate across lines of business, and that's really key in our model.
Our model is local delivery, but having the expertise that you would expect from a very large institution. The culture allows us to do that. We're a big bank, but we can be pretty nimble. That’s a big advantage.
And I'll say there is a lot of business to go around here. There are certainly niches that the money center banks play, and our friends in the community banking space serve an important purpose. We're somewhat in the middle. We think we can provide large-institution capabilities but still give people that kind of white-glove, personal attention, an assigned relationship manager that you might get at a community bank. It's that part we believe is differentiated.
Q. As you look at Charlotte and the Carolinas, what are the things that Huntington Bank likes about that market? Obviously, it's growing a lot. But is there anything specific to North and South Carolina that you're seeing that makes this a good place to be?
We're very fortunate in this region, in my opinion. We have a little bit of everything. It's really a super diverse economy. You have a tremendous talent base in Charlotte for banking. That makes it very attractive.
You have a number of industries represented here that we really do well in. North and South Carolina are somewhere in the top five in the country as far as fastest-growing markets, so population growth is absolutely part of it — and you know, again, a good talent pool, a cultural fit.
We're a Midwest bank. There are a lot of cultural similarities between people in the Midwest and the Southeast, in terms of what things are important to those groups of people, that we feel like our story resonates really well.
We like to think of ourselves as really good at our job, but humble and likable and good to get along with, and we think that's sort of a nice culture fit.